For this super fun Pre-K projects, students figured out how to create their own robots using shapes. To get this started, we watched a clip from the movie Robots (which I can't even believe is already 10 years old-older than these students).

The Pre-K'ers had a dance party while we watched this, danced around the room and giggling. I was super impressed that one student even knew that the song was by James Brown.

Next I showed students my examples of robots and asked them what shapes they could see. I heard "triangles, squares, rectangles, star, circle, oval", etc etc. I asked students to think of shapes that they could use to start making their robots head. They were full of ideas. I also asked what shapes they could use for the eyes, body, legs, hands, etc. By the time they had their paper in front of them, they had so many ideas and immediately began working. I supplied them with these images for reference:

They first drew their robots with pencil, the next class they traced their lines with Sharpies and erased the pencil marks. Students then spent two class periods filling in their robot with bright colors, using colored pencils. This project took four 25 minute class periods. During the last class, each student got to select a background color to post their artwork on.

This project was really fun and the results are awesome! I will definitely be doing this again next year!

Students looked at and discussed abstract art by a variety of abstractartists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Gregory Christeas and Teresa Young. As we began our project, we focused on three things:Line, Shape, Color.Students started with a scrap of cardboard and with crayons, markers, and watercolor paints. They used lines, shapes and colors to create unique, colorful abstract art. The students said that this was the first time in school that they had the opportunity to just make totally abstract art. Some seemed reluctant at the beginning (which I can totally relate to) because it is sometimes difficult to embrace the idea of making art that is not representing a cat, or a tree, or a house, etc. Once the students were fully immersed in their art, they seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Next they used a variety of colors and different sized papers to create paper rolls. They made the rolls by wrapping paper strips around pencils, then dipping the end in glue, and attaching it to their painting.

The individual pieces of art look pretty cool alone but when displayed all together, it creates a powerful, exciting work of art. I hear people in the hallway adoring the work almost every single day. Staff, parents, and students of all ages seem to really appreciate this piece.

The first graders really enjoyed creating abstract art. Some referred to the finished projects as looking like big cityscapes.

To study shapes and lines, Kindergarten students experimented with cutting out different colored shapes, and used brightly colored markers to trace around them.

Students cut out squares, triangles and rectangles quite easily. To practice more difficult shapes such as diamonds and circles, we cut out the shapes step-by-step. To cut out circles, students drew circles on their paper first, then cut out their drawing. To cut out diamonds, students folded their paper in half and cut out a triangle on the fold. When opened, it makes a diamond.

Students glued down their shapes on the paper wherever they wanted. Some students created strategic patterns while others just glued them down randomly.

To practice drawing shapes and to focus on repetitional drawing, the Kinders traced around each shape over and over and over until the entire page was filled with a pattern. They had the choice of which colors to use.